PCL MS 111 Robert Irvine Collection

Robert Irvine was born March 16, 1936 in Salt Lake City, Utah to a pioneering Mormon family. He was educated at East High School and continued his education at the University of Utah in 1954. He studied here for one year and then transferred to the University of California at Berkley where he graduated in 1959 with degrees in Anthropology and Art History. After college Robert Irvine spent two years in the United States Army, 1959-1961, working as a counter intelligence agent. He decided to pursue writing in the "classical" manner after working for the army and began writing journalism for newspapers. His first newspaper writing "gigs" were with Huntington Park's Daily Signal and the Hollywood Citizen-News. Next he found himself involved in radio and TV after his bout with newspapers and eventually became the News Director for ABC, KABC in Los Angeles. Here he helped develop "Eyewitness News." He left the news business to write books, however, he returned to the TV world for a year or two to write for a show called "Two on the Town" for KCBS, Los Angeles. In 1974 his first novel, Jump Cut, was published and was shortly followed by Freeze Frame in 1975, a book that was nominated for the Edgar Allen Poe Award. He found a niche for writing about television in his mystery/detective novels. Novels like The Face Out Front (1977), Horizon Hold (1978), and Ratings Are Murder (1985) are all based in a television production atmosphere. He also delved into horror novels with books like The Devil's Breath (1982) and Footsteps (1982). His writings took a turn towards his Utah roots when he began writing the Moroni Traveler Series which revolve around a lapsed Mormon detective. These novels are the first series of mystery books to involve network and TV news crews. Robert Irvine claims that he owes his writing career to the "Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine" which published four of his short stories (1972-1974) when he first started writing because they gave him the confidence to continue writing. Robert Irvine is married to Angie Irvine and they live in California together. Robert Irvine's writing style is credited with a breezy and humorous narrative that informs the reader of the details on news gathering and broadcasting.

The Robert Irvine Collection consists of his manuscripts and outlines for novels written between the years 1978 and 1994. For any given novel the researcher will likely find the outline and edited copy, with the occasional page proof. The book manuscripts and outlines included in this collection are as follows: Horizon Hold, Film At Eleven (title later changed to Ratings Are Murder), Ratings Are Murder, Baptism for the Dead, The Angels’ Share, Gone to Glory, Called Home, Woman’s Work (title later changed to The Spoken Word), The Spoken Word, The Great Reminder, and The Hosanna Shout. The manuscripts for books written earlier than 1978 are not known to the author, as they were paperback novels and the publisher either kept them or discarded them.

Literary Productions

Novel Manuscripts

1978-1994

Arranged chronologically by book publication date

Can include novel manuscripts, edited copies and galleys

The following books have been transferred from the collection to the Browne Popular Culture Library main stacks area. Check the links below to find the call numbers for these books in the BGSU Libraries catalog.

• The Angels’ Share — autographed hardback
• The Angels’ Share — autographed paperback
• Called Home — autographed hardback
• Ratings Are Murder — autographed hardback